- What good is grilling her going to do if you don’t act as it relates to withdrawing your support for her if you have uncovered information that would or could compromise her integrity, trustworthiness, reliability, ethics, honesty, etc, as a Supreme Court Justice? Moral character as the Bible defines it not as men define it should be one of the main characteristics you are looking for in a Supreme Court Justice. If she is a covert member or supporter of the LGBTQ Community she will only serve to undermine and destroy a nation that’s already teetering on the edge.
- Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Kentanji Brown Jackson began her appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday morning
- If successful, she will become the first black woman to sit on the Supreme Court
- Republicans have signaled they will present her as ‘soft on crime’
- Sen. Josh Hawley said she gave ‘lenient sentences’ to sex offenders
- But Sen. Dick Durbin, Democratic chair of the committee, said the charge was ‘baseless’ and ‘unfair as he opened proceedings
- For her part, Jackson said she took ‘seriously’ her duty to be independent
By ROB CRILLY, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 11:58 EDT, 21 March 2022 | UPDATED: 17:43 EDT, 21 March 2022Republicans on Monday signaled that President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Kentanji Brown Jackson can expect tough days of questioning when they opened her confirmation hearing with reminders of the bitter attacks on Justice Brett Kavanaugh and by linking her to dark money groups.
Biden last month nominated Jackson, 51, for a lifetime job on America’s top judicial body to succeed retiring liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, setting up a confirmation battle in the closely divided Senate.
If confirmed, she would be the first black woman to sit on the nation’s highest court.
But while Democrats hailed the historic nature of her nomination, Republicans signaled that they plan to pore over her record as a judge and public defender in an effort to portray her as soft on crime.
Sen. Lindsey Graham pointed out that Democrats had previously used the Senate filibuster to block confirmation of Janice Rogers Brown, a black conservative, who was nominated by then President George W. Bush.
‘As to the historic nature of your appointment, I understand,’ he said.
‘But when I get lectured about this from my Democratic colleagues, I remember Janice Rogers Brown, an African-American woman, that was filibustered by the same people praising you.’
And he said the Democrats had blocked Miguel Estrada, when he was Bush’s 2001 nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
‘So if you’re a Hispanic or African-American conservative, it’s about your philosophy,’ he said. ‘Now it’s going to be about the historic nature of the pick.’
Jackson entered the busy hearing room to be greeted by committee members and well-wishers as she took her place alone at the witness table.
Meanwhile, supporters gathered outside the Supreme Court. Graham says they were ‘getting spit on’ during Kavanaugh hearing
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday began its consideration of President Joe Biden’s nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the first black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court
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Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin (l) shakes hands with Jackson while Republican Chuck Grassley looks on before Monday’s hearing beganHawley attacks Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on her child porn record
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin criticizes ‘baseless’ and ‘unfair’ allegations Brown-Jackson is ‘soft on crime’
In his opening statement, Senator Dick Durbin, the Democratic committee chairman, launched a pre-emptive strike on some of the attacks that have been trailed for weeks in conservative media.
He described her history within the criminal justice system and noted that she came from a law enforcement family.
‘Yet despite that shared family experience despite your record, we’ve heard claims that you’re quote soft on crime,’ said Durbin.
‘These baseless charges are unfair.’
For her part, Jackson said she was humbled to be nominated and described how her parents grew up during the era of racial segregation in the South.
‘My parents taught me that, unlike the many barriers that they had had to face growing up, my path was clearer, such that if I worked hard and believed in myself, in America I could do anything or be anything I wanted to be,’ she said.
She promised to ‘support and defend’ the Constitution if confirmed.
‘I have been a judge for nearly a decade now, and I take that responsibility and my duty to be independent very seriously,’ she said.
‘I decide cases from a neutral posture. I evaluate the facts, and I interpret and apply the law to the facts of the case before me, without fear or favor, consistent with my judicial oath.’
Her opening statement came at the end of a day that heard Republican after Republican lay out their reservations and preview their questions for days two and two of the hearing.
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley presses her on ties to ‘dark money’ groups
Ranking Republican Chuck Grassley brought up ‘the troubling role of far left dark money groups, like Demand Justice have played in this administration’s judicial selection process.’
Demand Justice backs reform of the Supreme Court and Grassley said he wanted to know ‘why they strongly support Judge Jackson.’
Sen. John Cornyn said he would have questions about that too.
‘I’m also interested as others have mentioned, in your opinion, why pro-abortion, dark money groups like Demand Justice, and anti-religious liberty groups are pouring millions of dollars into a public campaign in support of your nomination?’
Some have already previewed their attacks in the media.
Republican Josh Hawley last week said he had found an ‘alarming pattern’ in Jackson’s treatment of sex offenders. Sen. Durbin praises SCOTUS +14View gallery
The hearing began in a packed committee room on Monday and will run for several days
Sen. Josh Hawley, a member of the committee, last week made clear that he will go after Jackson’s record of sentencing offenders guilty of crimes involving child pornography
And on Monday he detailed seven cases that came before Jackson as a judge, listing the sentences she imposed and comparing them with federal guidelines for cases involving child pornography.
In ‘each of these seven, Jackson handed down a lenient sentence that was below what the federal guidelines recommended and below what prosecutors requested,’ he said.
‘And so I think there’s a lot to talk about there and I look forward to talking about it.’
Jackson’s confirmation – replacing Breyer, another liberal – will not alter the court’s 6-3 conservative majority.
That has led some analysts to suggest Republicans may not marshal their full opposition.
Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz slam Democrats for their treatment of Kavanaugh
But Sen. Lindsey Graham, who backed Jackson’s nomination for a lower court, made clear that his vote was far from certain.
He complained that liberal groups had opposed his favored candidate, Michelle Childs, a federal district judge based in his home state of South Carolina.
‘If that’s the way the game is going to be played, then I’ll have a response,’ he said. ‘And I don’t expect it to reward that way of playing the game.’
And he said he hoped the hearings would not descend into the animosity that accompanied the 2018 confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, when he said Republicans were spat at. 
Jackson smiled broadly as she arrived for the hearing flanked by Grassley (l) and Durbin (r)
Durbin looks on as Grassley promised a ‘thorough’ and ‘exhaustive’ examination Grassley compares to Kavanaugh hearings and slams Democrats actionsLoaded: 0%Progress: 0%0:00PreviousPlaySkipMuteCurrent Time0:00/Duration Time1:11FullscreenNeed Text
Sen. Ted Cruz also brought up those hearings, when Kavanaugh was grilled over allegations of sexual assault and harassment, and faced multiple questions about parties he attended as a teenager.
‘I can assure you that your hearing will feature none of that disgraceful behaviour,’ he said.
‘No-one is going to inquire into your teenage dating habits.
‘No-one is going to ask you with mock severity, “Do you like beer?”‘
Democrats highlight how Jackson confirmation would make Supreme Court history
Their tone struck a contrast with Democrats who noted the historic nature of the nomination.
‘Not a single justice has been a black woman,’ said Durban in his opening statement. ‘You Judge Jackson can be the first.
‘It’s not easy being first. Often you have to be the best. In some ways, the bravest.
‘Many are not prepared to face that kind of heat, that kind of scrutiny that our deal in the glare of the national spotlight.
‘But your presence here today, your willingness to brave this process will give inspiration to millions of Americans who see themselves in you.
If confirmed she would become the third black justice, following Thurgood Marshall, who retired in 1991, and Clarence Thomas who remains on the court.
Democrats who control the Senate by the slimmest of margins hope to complete her confirmation before Easter.
And Durban also headed off criticism that she would be nothing but a ‘rubber stamp’ for Biden.
‘For these would be critics,’ he said, ‘I have four words: Look at the record.’
The senior Republican member, Sen. Chuck Grassley, promised a thorough, ‘exhaustive’ examination. 
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, holds papers during Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee Monda
Supporters of Supreme Court Justice nominee Judge Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson gathered outside the US Supreme Court as the hearing began
- BREAKING NEWS: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, 73, is…Mitch McConnell says Republicans will treat Biden’s Supreme…Republicans are now planning to GRILL Biden’s SCOTUS pick…Has Biden’s SCOTUS pick Ketanji Brown Jackson secured her…
Republicans, he said, ‘won’t try to turn this into a spectacle, he said
‘What we will do, however, is ask tough questions about Judge Jackson’s judicial philosophy,’ he continued.
In any Supreme Court nomination the most important thing that I look for is the nominee’s view of the law, judicial philosophy and view on the role of a judge in our constitutional system.
‘I’ll be looking to see whether judge Jackson is committed to the Constitution as originally understood.’
He also made clear that her time as a criminal defense lawyer would come under particular scrutiny, explaining that it was fair game to probe ‘criminal defense lawyers who disagree with our criminal laws and want to undermine laws that they have policy disagreements with.’
Jackson is expected to deliver her opening statement later on Monday.
The committee’s 22 members will then spend Tuesday and Wednesday questioning her about her record and philosophy.
Her nomination fulfilled Biden’s 2020 election promise to name a black woman to the court.
‘Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is a brilliant legal mind with the utmost character and integrity,’ the president tweeted in support on Monday morning. ‘She deserves to be confirmed as the next justice of the Supreme Court.’
Democrats sought to rebut criticism of Jackson’s time as a judge, and before that as a public defender and a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
‘Judge Jackson is not anti-law enforcement. She’s not soft on crime,’ said Sen. Pat Leahy, again repeating the fact that members of Jackson’s family have worked in law enforcement.
How Harvard-educated Ketanji Brown rose from a public defender to the nation’s highest court and helped prisoners seek early release for crack cocaine crimes
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is President Biden’s nominee for Supreme Court
Ketanji Brown Jackson, the federal appeals court judge who President Joe Biden is poised to nominate to become the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, brings a diverse set of experiences to the bench, including a stint representing low-income criminal defendants.
Jackson, 51, who Biden last year appointed to an influential Washington-based appellate court, served early in her career as a Supreme Court clerk for Justice Stephen Breyer, whose retirement announced in January opens up a vacancy on the nation’s top judicial body.
As a member of the federal judiciary, Jackson has earned respect from liberals and conservatives alike and is well-connected in the close-knit Washington legal community. Progressives favored her nomination over the other leading candidates: South Carolina-based U.S. District Court judge J. Michelle Childs and California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger.
The Senate voted 53-44 in June last year to confirm Jackson as a member of the U.S. Court of the Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
In her short time on the appeals court, she has authored two majority opinions, including one in favor of public sector unions challenging a regulation issued during Republican former President Donald Trump’s administration that restricted their bargaining power.
She was part of a three-judge panel that ruled in December against Trump’s bid to prevent White House records from being handed over to the House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters. The Supreme Court on Jan. 20 declined to block that decision.
Jackson also was part of a three-judge panel that refused last August to block the Biden administration’s COVID-19 pandemic-related residential eviction moratorium, a decision that was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
‘PRESIDENTS ARE NOT KINGS’
Jackson previously won Senate confirmation in 2013 after Democratic former President Barack Obama nominated her as a Washington-based federal district judge. In her eight years in that role, she handled a number of high-profile cases including one in which she ruled that Trump’s one-time chief White House lawyer, Donald McGahn, had to comply with a congressional subpoena for testimony about potential Trump obstruction of a special counsel investigation.
‘The primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded American history is that Presidents are not kings,’ Jackson wrote.
The ruling was appealed and, after Biden took office, a settlement was reached. McGahn testified behind closed doors.
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he Honorable Sri Srinivasan, left, the Honorable Judge David Tatel who sit on U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, center, and Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who sits on U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia walk into a ceremonial courtroom of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
In other decisions, Jackson in 2019 blocked Trump’s plan to expedite removal of certain immigrants and in 2018 ruled against his administration’s proposal to make it easier to fire federal employees – decisions later reversed by the appellate court on which she now serves.
Biden had pledged during the 2020 presidential election campaign to appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court. It has had only two Black justices, both men: Clarence Thomas, appointed in 1991 and still serving, and Thurgood Marshall, who retired in 1991 and died in 1993.
During her April 2021 confirmation hearing for her current job, Jackson said her background, both personal and professional, would ‘bring value’ to the bench, though she rejected suggestions by Republican senators that race could affect her rulings.
‘I’ve experienced life in perhaps a different way than some of my colleagues because of who I am,’ Jackson said.
Three Republican senators joined Biden’s fellow Democrats in voting to confirm Jackson.
Jackson would become the sixth woman ever to serve on the Supreme Court, joining current members Amy Coney Barrett, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, the retired Sandra Day O’Connor and the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
‘PROFESSIONAL VAGABOND’
Biden has sought to bring more women and minorities and a broader range of backgrounds to a federal judiciary dominated by jurists who had been corporate lawyers or prosecutors.
Jackson was raised in Miami and attended Harvard University, where she once shared a scene in a drama class with future Hollywood star Matt Damon, before graduating from Harvard Law School in 1996.
Jackson in 2017 described herself as a ‘professional vagabond’ earlier in her legal career, moving from job to job as she sought a work-life balance while raising a family. She and husband Patrick Jackson, a surgeon, have two daughters.
She worked from 2005 to 2007 as a court-appointed lawyer paid by the government to represent criminal defendants who could not afford counsel. Among her clients was Khi Ali Gul, an Afghan detainee at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The United States sent him back to Afghanistan in 2014 when she was no longer involved in the case.
Jackson worked from 2002 to 2004 for Kenneth Feinberg, the lawyer known for overseeing compensation programs including one for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
She also had two separate stints at the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which issues guidance to judges on criminal sentencing, including a four year stint starting in 2010 as the Senate-confirmed vice chair.
Jackson in 2020 paid tribute to Breyer during a virtual conference in which they both participated, saying he ‘opened doors of opportunities’ not just through his judicial decisions but also by hiring a diverse group of law clerks.
‘As a descendant of slaves,’ Jackson added, ‘let me just say that, Justice (Breyer), your thoughtfulness in that regard has made a world of difference.’
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is married to a Washington D.C. surgeon and has two kids
FAMILY MATTERS
Jackson has personal experience with the federal system.
Her distant uncle, Thomas Brown Jr., was serving a life sentence in Florida for a nonviolent drug crime. He wrote to her asking for help with his case.
He was sentenced to life under a ‘three strikes’ law. After a referral from Jackson, the powerhouse law firm Wilmer Hale took his case pro bono, and President Barack Obama years later commuted his sentence.
When Obama appointed her to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, she helped rewrite guidelines to reduce recommended penalties for drug-related offenses.
Jackson was born in Washington, D.C., to two public school teachers, who moved her family to the Miami area when she was a child.
Her parents, she said, named her ‘Ketanji Onyika’ to express pride in their African ancestry. Her father would later become an attorney with the Miami-Dade County School Board and her mother a principal at a public magnet school.
She and her husband, Patrick Jackson, a surgeon at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, have two daughters.
She is related by marriage to former House Speaker Paul Ryan. Jackson’s husband is the twin brother of Ryan’s brother-in-law.
‘Janna and I are incredibly happy for Ketanji and her entire family,’ Ryan tweeted on Friday. ‘Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji’s intellect, for her character, and for her integrity, is unequivocal.’